It’s never too early to start educating students on how to make healthy life decisions and avoid the use and abuse of drugs.

According to Minister of Youth Development (Urban) Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah at the launching of the ‘Drug Prevention Education Programme in Schools’ at SMK Petra Jaya recently, more schools will be collaborating with the National Drug Abuse Prevention Association (Pemadam) in running drug-free programmes in the near future.

“The drug problem must be eradicated to ensure a brighter future for our school children. In line with this, the Drug-Free School programme organised by Pemadam with SMK Petra Jaya is beneficial to these students to educate our future generations as schools are vital institutions in any state or country while students are valuable assets to all,” said Abdul Karim, who is also the Pemadam Sarawak chairman.

Abdul Karim pointed out that the future of Malaysia lies heavily on students and younger generation today.

SMK Petra Jaya students singing ‘Dadah Durjana’ (Drugs are evil) and ‘Mereka Yang Rebah’ (Those that fall) in the spirit of the drug-prevention programme.

“To mould and educate our students, we must also be very careful in handling our responsibilities with wisdom and love. If students are nurtured with good values, a well-educated generation will be born, and if they are being cultivated with bad values, we will reap damaged and bad generation in the future,” he explained.

Although the number of drug-related cases in Sarawak are still the lowest in the country, he hoped that all government agencies, NGOs, and private sectors would take further collaborative action to tackle the drug problem, particularly in schools and higher learning institutions.

“This close collaboration is needed to make the vision of Drug-Free Schools into a reality,” he said. “Through this programme, it can raise awareness to students about the dangers of drugs and the consequences in the future.”

Also present at the ceremony was SMK Petra Jaya principal Abdul Radzak Ismail.

Minister of Youth Development (Urban) Abdul Karim (fourth left)launching the drug prevention programme at SMK Petra Jaya on September 8.

The drug detection dog show handled by National Anti-Drugs Agency (AADK).

About Camp’US’life

A section specifically about life on campus from both students and lecturers, where readers can get the news about programmes, new facilities, clubs and associations, ongoing research findings and projects, events and school highlights.

In a nutshell…

The idea for The Borneo Post SEEDS began about a year ago, first as an idea as a weekly print-publication, and then more recently as a website.

Our mission is to give young adults a voice and a face in the news, and the chance to tell us what's relevant to them whether it's through this site's forums, email, our Facebook and twitter pages.